


Diptych

by Northland



Category: The Chronicles of Morgaine - C. J. Cherryh
Genre: End of the World, Gen, Post-Canon, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-23
Updated: 2015-12-23
Packaged: 2018-05-08 18:04:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5507570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northland/pseuds/Northland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two post-Shiuan ficlets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Diptych

**Author's Note:**

  * For [undomielregina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/undomielregina/gifts).



Their bulwarks were broken, their halls laid waste,  
the cities crumbled, those who would repair it  
laid in the earth. And so these halls are empty  
\- from ["The Ruin"](http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/sechard/oeruin.htm)

 

He found Jhirun in the hiding place she always favoured after Hnoth passed, at the broken bridge. She was curled within a hollow in one of the vast crumbling spurs, staring out across the Suvoj that boiled over castle-size chunks of stone far below. The centre of the bridge had fallen three years ago, in the same earth-shaking that had leveled the pillars of the already-dead Well, and since then none had come from the south.

She seemed lost in her visions, but when his shadow fell across the stone she spoke. “Ohtij-in is gone. I dreamed it.” 

Kithan shrugged. “It was gone long ago.” He had never returned, though some had travelled there to see what might be salvaged; he did not need to see again the fallen towers and the walls that had buried so many. 

“Now it is under water,” Jhirun murmured. Her mouth curved in a tiny smile and Kithan saw that she was well pleased. Of course, she had only known the place as a prisoner; it had never been her home. 

“May the fish have joy of it,” he said lightly, and tugged at her hand to pull her up.

She allowed it, for once, and as they walked back up the muddy road he wondered again why he was still alive. Jhirun needed him no longer; he was more of a liability than any help, in these days when his people were dwindling even faster than the humans. He thought it was only that her hate for him had become familiar, comforting, like a knife with its pommel perfectly worn to fit the wielder’s hand. She wanted him alive to remind her that all the other _khal_ who had ever harmed her were dead.

*

Kithan had found her, as he always did whenever she sought to be alone. It was irritating, but today Jhirun was in a better mood than usual after her Hnoth-dreams. Seeing Ohtij-in overwhelmed by the sea at last--the place where she had been thrown to armed men like a scrap to hounds, where she had had to fight her own kinsmen--that was well worth a few days and nights of feverish visions. 

Then he spoke to her, and she thought of the Ohtija women and children who had harmed no-one and were buried under those stones as well. She took his hand in a darker mood. He seemed to sense that, and played up to it, bowing her ahead on the muddy road with a mocking "My queen."

“Why do you call me that?” Jhirun's satisfaction had fled; she was tired and hungry and wet, in no mood for Kithan’s odd humour.

He lifted one shoulder in his characteristic, maddening shrug. “You have more right to the title than anyone else in this world. Did you not take pride in being the daughter of kings?”

Jhirun growled. “ _Khal_ care nothing for the old kings,” she said. “And you never even saw the Barrowlands.” She was the last one left alive who had.

They climbed in silence for a moment, as Jhirun concentrated on not slipping on the tilted stones of the road that was slowly being swallowed up by the earth.

“You dream true dreams,” Kithan said at last, and this time the mockery was absent from his voice. “I do not know any with that talent, unless it be the blood of those who came through the Wells. So do not be so quick to disclaim it.”

“Queen of nothing. A salt waste and barren stone,” she muttered, with a bitter laugh.

Kithan was still holding her hand. “Your name will live beyond you,” he said. "I swear it."

Jhirun laughed again, but this time she believed him.


End file.
